


so, they have rules

by sentichefuoripiove



Category: Grey's Anatomy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-14
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-18 00:50:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18109961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sentichefuoripiove/pseuds/sentichefuoripiove
Summary: So, they have rules. They try really hard to stick to them, but it had never occurred to Andrew until now that it would be nice to have one that says what he should do with the hot white jealously that is now taking over his entire body.An unexpected visit from Meredith's not-so-distant past has Andrew worry, probably more than he needs to. Everyone else is still going to make fun of him, though.Set somewhere in the second half of season 15.





	so, they have rules

So, they have rules. They really try hard to stick to them, but neither has been very successful so far. Not that he would ever admit it, but Andrew totally digs the fact that apparently she isn’t able to keep her hands off of him either, makes him feel like she actually wants this, _him_ , too, and this isn’t just all in his head or completely one-sided.

So, they have rules. They really try hard to stick to them and one thing they do manage is keeping the whole thing go undetected by most of the people in the hospital. The people who needed to know have been made aware, and everyone else eventually will catch up. They don’t really feel the need to broadcast it to the entire hospital. God knows she went through it once already and he agrees that a repeat of it wouldn’t be good for anybody.

So, they have rules. They really try hard to stick to them, but that doesn’t mean they won’t flirt constantly. They are currently at the nurses' front desk, standing next to each other with charts in hand, deep in conversation with Amelia, who sits at a computer in front of them. Meredith had a patient from the ER that she operated on, but now the man needs a neuro consult, and since Andrew is on Amelia’s service today, Meredith is now updating them both, so that she can move on to the kidney transplant that awaits on the board with her name written next to it.

“Mr. Gleason is stable now, but he should need a couple more hours before you can go in and do more in depth testing. Qadri will be monitoring him, so you can ask her any questions you have about his vitals. Page me in case he...” Meredith trails off as Amelia picks up the conversation, talking fast about the procedure she would like to try to salvage the man’s arm. Sure, they have rules, and sure, Andrew is a competent doctor who takes the opportunity to learn from one of the best neurosurgeons on the West Coast seriously, but that doesn’t mean he won’t thread his fingers through Meredith’s while he listens. The tablets in front of them shield their intertwined hands from the rest of the room, and if Amelia notices she just gives a small smile and says nothing. Holding hands in the middle of the work day is definitely not the most professional thing they could do, but she isn’t resisting it, so he chalks it up as ok and his heart maybe swells up in his chest with the feeling of _she likes this too_

“Ok, I need to go check on the pre-op and then scrub in” Meredith takes back her hand after a light squeeze, puts her tablet into the charging station and turns to Amelia one last time. “Will I see you at home tonight?”  
“Not sure, I have a simulation I wanna run in the lab, depends on how that goes. I’ll let you know?”  
“Sure, just in case I need to leave out something for you to eat. I’ll see you both...”, turns to Andrew, gives him a wide smile that makes her eyes shine, “...later”  
She takes a couple steps backwards, eyes still locked into Andrew’s, before turning around to walk away, and....

“Hey, there you are!”  
....she smacks directly into Nick Marsh’s smiling face, arms open to steady her from the impact.  
“Uh, wha-,...Hi! How are you? What are you doing here?” Meredith swiftly regains her composure and Andrew, watching the exchange from a couple feet away, gets the feeling that it wasn’t just the sudden impact that startled her.  
“Well, the news of the awesome, groundbreaking technique you’re using for your transplant today reached my hospital, so they sent me here for the retrieval and possibly to assist and learn from you?” the man says with a smile, and Andrew is _definitely not_ confused or jealous when he sees Meredith blush a little.  
“Yeah, of course! I’m so glad to see you again!” she says, reaching up to lightly touch his shoulder. “Do you know where you can change into scrubs? I’ll show you, and you can tell me how my amazing saving-your-life surgery has been treating you.” They laugh, stepping away and toward the elevators.

Meredith doesn’t look back at Andrew, not even once, lost too deep in conversation with the new doctor, and... Yep, now he is definitely jealous.  
He turns back to Amelia, who has the face of a woman who knows she should be looking sympathetic, but is actually just amused by the whole situation.  
“Who was that?” he asks her, eyes darting back at the now closing elevator doors, Meredith and Nick gone.  
“That was Meredith’s almost-lover patient” Amelia says with way too much mirth in her voice for his liking.  
“I’m sorry, what?” he half-shouts, making heads turn to look at him questionably.  
“He was a patient from last year, I believe. Came in with a kidney his body was rejecting after a transplant. I’m pretty sure she said he was a surgeon too.”  
Ok, that he gets. The almost-lover part? Not so much. “Why almost-lover then?”. He knows he sounds worried, and that Amelia will probably shamelessly mock him for it, but something deep in his stomach says he needs to know, so he asks anyway.  
“Don’t worry, nothing happened. I think they just flirted a bit, but nothing came of it.”  
“You sure?”  
“Pretty much.” Amelia walks around the desk to stand next to him, now a bit worried. “Andrew, don’t...don’t think anything of it, ok? It was nothing, really. It’s not a big deal.”  
“Yeah, ok, you’re right” he concedes, following her to their next patient.  
The coil in his stomach is still there, though.

***

“I’ve never seen a transplant approached in that way, it was so awesome!”  
“Right? Even with those complications, the fact that she is managing to get through with it is pretty incredible.”  
“Well, when could you ever say Meredith Grey isn’t incredible?”  
Andrew perks up at the mention of Meredith’s name. Two residents, a guy and a woman who he doesn’t work that much with, enter the lounge where he is sitting with a pile of Dr Shepherd’s post-op paperwork. He acknowledges the couple with a smile and a nod, and goes back to work, only half listening to their chatter as they keep discussing the surgery while changing clothes: from what he gathers they were probably watching Meredith’s groundbreaking surgery from the gallery, and there were complications, which means that she will probably be in surgery longer than expected. Honestly, the jealous episode from that morning had faded, and he had almost forgot about who was in the OR with her, until...  
“...and I know that it shouldn’t be what’s important in a surgery, but they seemed like they were having so much fun!” One of the doctors said.  
“But he isn’t a doctor here. Do you think they knew each other already? They seemed so comfortable. And...flirty?”  
“Oh god, please don’t tell me you’re wondering if they slept together!” The woman groaned “why do you care?”  
“Do you know where we work? Gossip is a precious commodity around here, and Tyler the ICU nurse has a poll running on whether they’ll go have drinks after surgery. You know....alone”  
“You are all awful people” she says, closing her backpack and heading out, the other resident in tow, laughing at his colleague’s annoyance.

So, they have rules. They try really hard to stick to them, but it had never occurred to Andrew until now that it would be nice to have one that says what he should do with the hot white jealously that is now taking over his entire body.

***

“Hey”  
“Oh, hey” she greets him, looking up from the chart in front of her. She is still in a surgical cap and gown, open over her scrubs, and she turns to look at him, leans against the counter of the nurses' desk.  
“How did it go?” He asks smiling.  
“Well... could have gone better. We closed him up, but it’s possible I’m going to have to go back in sooner than expected.”  
“I’m sure that Dr Marsh will be happy to help you out with that” he says, trying to keep his tone light, not entirely sure he’s successful at that.  
Meredith gives him a questioning look, and after checking that no one is watching, leads him to an empty room, closes the door behind them.  
“What is this about?” she asks, but by her tone and the amused glint in her eyes he knows she has already figured out _exactly what this is about._  
“Nothing, it just looked like you two were going along great this morning. He seemed really happy to see you.”  
“Well, I did save his life, I should hope he’d be happy to see me” she says with a smirk.  
“Mer...” he scolds her. Andrew knows he’s being silly, but that shouldn’t mean she gets to mock him.  
“Andrew, really. Say what you want to say.”  
“Well, I’m not exactly thrilled that you spent the last 6 hours with the one that got away.”  
“He hasn’t gotten away, he’s right here”, and there’s that smirk again.  
“Oh my god” disbelief flashing over his face, “You’re kidding, right?”  
“Yes Andrew, I’m kidding” she says calmly, smiling sweetly at him. “There’s nothing to worry about. He is a visiting doctor, here to learn a new procedure. We just happen to go along great. That’s it.” She takes a step forward, takes his hand in hers. He looks down at their tangled fingers, and with a small voice that is barely a whisper “...And you saved his life.”  
“Yeah, and I saved his life. But that’s because I’m just that good”, and if her intent was to make him laugh it works, because now they are both grinning, stepping closer into each other’s space.

His other hand snakes up to hold her at the nape of her neck, guides her up so their lips can meet in a short kiss, that doesn’t have the time to develop into something more because _there are rules_ , but mostly because her pager goes off with an annoying beep. He lets go of her to let her check the small screen, and the way her shoulders sag lets him know it’s not good news.  
“My transplant patient needs to go back to surgery now” she informs him, sighing.  
“Alright, I’ll see you later if we can manage. Go kick ass.” he leans forward and places another quick kiss to her lips before she turns to walk away.  
“Oh... Meredith?” he stops her.  
“Yeah?”  
“I still think he’s after you, and I still reserve myself the right to be jealous. Just thought I’d let you know” but his tone is playful, so that she doesn’t think he doesn’t trust her.  
She just laughs that laugh he loves, opens the door and leaves.

***

Amelia leaves early so she can take Meredith’s kids home, so Andrew just has to finish all the post-ops, and then he can go take a look at her surgery from the gallery. He’s pretty sure general is not the direction he is going to take for his specialty, but watching her work is still mesmerising, and he would never pass up on the opportunity.  
Alex is already there, watching while eating from a bag of chips. Andrew sits down next to him, and gratefully accepts some of the food the Chief offers him.  
“How’s it going?”  
“Pretty good, I think. They fixed everything they didn’t manage to fix the first time around, so they should be good now” Alex says through a mouthful of chips.  
They watch in silence for a couple of minutes, but the more he looks, the more Andrew ends up concentrating on the body language of the two surgeons below him. He watches Marsh looking at Meredith, probably saying something he can’t make out from behind the mask, and he sees Meredith’s eyes crinkle in amusement and that same uneasy feeling in his stomach from before takes over again. He doesn’t like the feeling one bit. So he swallows his pride and asks:  
“I’m sorry, I know this is weird, but...”  
“What?” Alex turns to look at him.  
“... Did Mer ever talk to you about this guy?” He says sheepishly.  
Alex chuckles mockingly and turns his attention back to the surgery “Yeah, we’re not doing this”.  
“Why not?” Andrew asks offended, “If there’s one person who would know it's definitely you. Dr Shepherd told me some things, but you are the one Meredith talks to”.  
“Yes, she does, and that’s because she knows I won’t say anything to other people. And I know she will do the same for me”.  
Andrew shoots him a glaring look.  
Alex looks at him sideways, then sighs. “Look, Deluca... Mer and I have been friends a long time. We’ve been there for each other through all sorts of stuff, and you know enough about us to know that. I like you two together, I really do”, he reassures him when he sees Andrew’s doubtful look, “But Meredith needs to have a person that she can tell things to without judgement, to put things into perspective. She always did, and Yang left her to me, so this is what you get.”  
“I would never judge her” he states, only slightly offended by the implication of Alex’s speech.  
“It has nothing to do with you, that’s just how Mer is. She needs... someone else. It was the same way with Shepherd, and your relationship will probably be better if you just accept the fact that it will be like this for you too.”

Andrew doesn’t say anything, just stares in front of him, his attention back to Meredith, who is now clearly laughing at Marsh’s jokes.  
“I’m sorry if that person has to be me. I know I’m probably not you favorite guy” Alex brings him back to reality.  
“What? Oh, no... that’s not what I was thinking about. We’re good.”  
“Then what?”  
“Does she really.... Is he... Was he really the one that got away for her?” he finally spits out.  
“What?” Alex laughs, “Who the hell told you that?”  
“Dr Shepherd”, Andrew doesn’t like being mocked.  
“Shepherd doesn’t know what she’s talking about” Alex chuckles, “And Nick Marsh definitely isn’t the one that got away. He was just... the wake up call.”  
“The what?”  
“Uhm... Ok, you have to swear you will never tell her I’m telling you. Yang would never, she would just yell at you to leave her alone, but I’m in charge now and I believe in communication as an healthy tool in a relationship, so again, we're doing things my way.”  
“Yeah, yeah, will you tell me already?” he is getting annoyed now.  
“Nick made her realize that she was finally ready to let go and go on with her life. That she could live her life again. She had been seeing people before him, but she was still stuck in grief. I tried to talk to her about it, but these kinds of things you have to figure out yourself.”  
“So, they did go out?”, jealousy coiling up again in his stomach.  
“Hell no, you’re kidding?” Alex stops him. “After all the grief she gave both Izzie and me about dating patients? She knows I would never let that one go.”  
“You...Izzie... Who? What?”  
“I’m sorry, don’t worry about it. No, they didn’t go out.”  
“Oh, ok then.” 

Andrew is relieved by this new information, but that doesn’t mean his fears are entirely dissipated. He still can see the way they interact with each other, and she might not be interested but he definitely is. Alex must see the worry in his face, because he pats his leg before standing up to go to the intercom.  
“Don’t worry man, she really likes you. He doesn’t stand a chance” and then, into the speaker: “Dr Marsh, remember to come into my office after you close him up, so that we can go over the privileges papers?”  
From the OR people look up to the gallery at the sound, and while Marsh answers with a “no problem, Chief”, Meredith and Andrew’s eyes meet for a moment. He smiles sweetly at her, gives her a thumbs up as encouragement and he can see in her eyes the smile the mask is hiding.  
Alex nods at Andrew as a goodbye, and leaves. It takes a second for Andrew to realize that the other man has left the intercom on, but he doesn’t have the energy to get up to switch it off, and besides, this way he gets to hear the sound of her voice. Sure, they have rules, but there’s no rule about him thinking sappy things like this, if she doesn’t know about it.

So he spends another 30 minutes or so listening to the conversation below him, held over the sutures to close up the patient. They are mostly talking about trivial stuff: procedures, her kids, his recent trip to Brazil and his niece’s new dorm room, and Andrew is still a bit jealous but he can now see this is innocent, they are just two people that like each other. What’s the harm in her having friends? Male, age appropriate, amazing surgeon friends?  
...Ok, maybe he is more than a bit jealous, but he is trying hard not to be, because she deserves more than that. 

The surgery is now over, they are getting rid of gloves and gowns, and Andrew is getting up so he can go downstairs, thinking he will surprise her by waiting for her outside the scrub room, when Marsh’s voice stops him in his tracks.  
“Hey, I was thinking... what would you say to drinks at that place you all go to?”  
“What, now?” She seems surprised, “Yeah, why not? I think my sister is still here, I can look for her and I can introduce you two” she offers.  
“Ehm, actually... I was kinda thinking we could go alone.”  
“Oh” she says, stunned, and Andrew would be fuming, if it wasn’t for the look of pure panic that crosses Meredith’s face.  
“I mean, if you want, and if you aren’t too tired. We can always do it another time, or...” Marsh backtracks, seeing her expression.  
“Yeah... no... I mean. I’m sorry, but I can’t”, she stammers.  
“Not even another time?” He tries again, still a little hopeful.  
“Not even another time”, she smiles at him apologetically, and this time he understands, bows his head in defeat, but he offers her a smile and changes subject, and they go into the scrub room chatting away about the surgery. 

***

So, they have rules. They really try hard to stick to them, but this time he makes an exception, because he feels smug and he can’t just let her get away with it.

When she opens the door of the scrub room, he is standing in the hallway, leaning against the railing, arms crossed. On her face he can see the realization hitting her, that he surely heard Nick asking her out.  
He tilts his head, raises his brow, as if to silently say _See? I told you so_ , but just waits for her to make the first move. He is enjoying the higher ground way too much.  
“Oh, shut up” she scolds him, and starts to walk away.  
He lightly runs to catch up to her, while laughing fully, and with a long step he gets in front of her, blocking her way. He tilts his head again, smirks, still doesn’t say a word.  
She glares up at him, and with a huff she smacks him with the surgical cap she had removed from her head, defeated and annoyed.  
“Ok, You win, you were right. Will you just take me home now?”  
At that he melts, puts his arm around her shoulders, and together they make their way to the attendings’ lounge so she can change out of her scrubs.

So, they have rules. They really try hard to stick to them, but sometimes, on nights like this one, they leave the hospital hand in hand, and if someone sees them he knows she doesn’t really mind.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!  
> This is probably the longest thing I've ever written, and with a lot more plot than I'm used to, but I still really like how it turned out. The idea was a brainstorming effort on Tumblr with @dearemma, who prompted the end and then helped build on it. Thank you, friend.
> 
> It doesn't go anywhere specific in the timeline, probably somewhere after 15x15, but I feel a little more time has passed that they are now really comfortable in the relationship. On the show Alex probably wouldn't be Chief anymore, but here he still is because I love him and I am so proud, come at me, lol.
> 
> I also brought Tyler the nurse back, because I'm rewatching old episodes and he was awesome, what happened to him??
> 
> I hope you enjoy, and you will let me know what you think!


End file.
